Scene/ Environment Help!
I need some help...
I have it set that i want to make something cool. I thought about making a 3d scene/ environment but i dont know where to start. I kinda want to make something old like a WWII scene, abandoned scene, texas chainsaw massacre, or a city scene. Im not sure which one to go with and where to exactly start. At school, i drew some pictures of something i kinda want to make. I wanted to try to make a 3-D scene of my drawing i did for art class of an underwater city that looked sweet! But the whole water is a problem... i dont know how to make real looking water. and believe it or not, i dont know how to make uv maps for my models. I know i sound so dumb saying i dont know how to do this so simple stuff but i need help.
If anybody has some help or suggestions,feel free to post in a comment.
Thank you very much!
I have it set that i want to make something cool. I thought about making a 3d scene/ environment but i dont know where to start. I kinda want to make something old like a WWII scene, abandoned scene, texas chainsaw massacre, or a city scene. Im not sure which one to go with and where to exactly start. At school, i drew some pictures of something i kinda want to make. I wanted to try to make a 3-D scene of my drawing i did for art class of an underwater city that looked sweet! But the whole water is a problem... i dont know how to make real looking water. and believe it or not, i dont know how to make uv maps for my models. I know i sound so dumb saying i dont know how to do this so simple stuff but i need help.
If anybody has some help or suggestions,feel free to post in a comment.
Thank you very much!
Replies
so stop using us as a crutch, get off you ass an just do it!
Ok, I do have an idea as stated.. i just dont know how to make certain things in it.... Didn't have to be so rude..
no as far as deciding what environment to make that is all on you. try to come up with an idea that will be cool to you and other people, something with an interesting story to support your environment. some of the Ideas you were talking about sound cool, and you can even mix ideas together to come up with something truly unique. Just make sure that you have plenty of reference and or a really good concept drawing. you dont want to be sitting there with your brain blocked up trying to figure out what to make in this area because you don't have enough reference. that no fun. If you feel that you are a good concept artist come up with a few drawing or painting show the environment you want to make. or do like I do and just find a cool concept that you like and think will make a good environment.
And post up your concepts and some reference here. this is a great resource to have other artist help guide you in the right direction.
hope this helps
yeah dude kinda mean
Thank you. I think part of the problem was i ad too much on my mind of what to make and what i want to do.
Ill use your advice.
Thanks agian
-matt
It's true though. I know a lot of people that have fallen through on starting their 3D "career" because they just aren't creative. But I also agree that he should post up some concepts and at start trying. Once you get started with specific concepts Matt, it can help find what you're trying to do. Good luck.
It's all about practice, practice, practice. So get cranking! We'll be here to give you brutal critique of your progress once you have any to show, but you need to actually start making stuff first. :poly108:
Everyone starts small.
If you're around college age, try looking into some 3d programs.
There's a lot of good programs out there.
Personally, I started about 7years ago and though some people frown on it, I started with video tutorials on 3dBuzz.com
They have a lot of free tutorials and cover maya, 3ds and udk.
Those should get you started and just like SasoChicken said, for everything more specific there are forums.
Good Luck!
ok,, first off if you want to be a super douche with a dick twisted up his ass just don't post, then you may actually realize that being an asshole isn't necessary especially when the kid is 15.
You sound more of a super douche than anyone else in this thread.
Anyways...OP...PC has been the most useful fucking forum that I have come across....and they will help you with your tech questions, how do I do this? What does this do? What's the most efficient way of doing this?
To use PC in a effective way...Create Something -> Post -> Ask for crits. (Warning: PC users are honest, non sugar-coating members..which is why it makes PC so great! If you get easily offended by this and/or penises you might want to check out gameartisans.org, lol)
Anyways...it sounds like you need to do a lot of tutorial watching...
Check out this site...
http://cg.tutsplus.com/
There's a lot of useful stuff there.
It's easy to hide behind the internet but imagine if in real life, a 15 year old asked for help, not a critique, but help and someone told him that he wasn't creative enough and needed stop using people as a crutch, I would hope to god that someone would tell him off. It's unacceptable and completely unneccessary and I would have told that guy off in real life or if I had to rewrite that post I would write exactly the same thing, I'm not sure how that makes me the douche but I guess we just have different opinions on what being a douche is.
And I actually forgot to post what I was going to say because I got so angry when I read that first response but...
I would definetely try not to focus so much on making environments, I'm not sure what your end goal is as far as environment art, character art, or level design but luckily you have plenty of time to figure that out.
I made the mistake early on in trying to make scenes to much and it takes away from learning to model. Modeling a cup for a scene doesn't help your modeling skills to much so that's why I would say don't worry about making a cool scene and just make a cool model. Modeling some bad ass sci-fi generator is going to be just as cool and show off a lot more skill in my opinion then modeling a table, chairs, etc. that you would have to model for an environment.
One of the best ways to improve upon your modeling skills is just going through these forums and when you see something cool you don't know how to do you just imitate the model and try and replicate the result.
Good luck man, I wish I had been as motivated to learn stuff like this when I was your age. Even if you only learn a 1/3 as fast as I did you'll still be ahead of where I am at my age.
The best part about this is you're not starting a HUGE project like a gigantic underwater metropolis that you may never finish. It's one object. That if done right can be great as a stand alone piece. If you feel inspired you can continue on with the project and create the city, or maybe a coral reef or something and put the thing underwater.
But for now, I suggest you just model one thing, learn how to UV unwrap and texture your models. Learn the basics of high poly > low poly bakes and normal, diffuse, specular maps. Download and look into Xnormal and start reading tutorials on that. I think this project should really focus on UV unwrapping and creating materials more than anything else since that is a cornerstone for creating art, unlike say learning a water simulation/effects.
Look into the program Roadkill for your UV's too. For the most part UV's are very simple, but just take a little bit to get the hang of them.
Once you're started post frequently so we can critique you and help you understand what you can improve. Don't jump too far ahead, because we'll likely tell you to go back and start over or fix something.
my advice boils down to don't post a thread asking people what they think you should make. Make what YOU want to make.
20 posts for a thread that has not a bit of art when theres threads with art on them that cant get hardly any comments at all.
Beef up you pussys! If youre 15 and want to do 3d but dont know what maybe
just step away from your computer go out and look at things, gather experience
all that stuff if you still want to sit infront of your computer for long periods of time
after that you should be able to come up with something.
First off, being harsh is only going to discourage him... no reason for that. Didn't we all want a little direction when we first started? Some people just don't know where to start, that's all.
Anyways... now onto the subject of environment modeling. Matt, start out with small aspects of environments for now. Chairs, rocks, small vegetation... things like that.
Until you start messing around with things in a 3D app, you won't realize how much time this stuff really takes to learn. It can go pretty fast once you have a good grasp on it, but you'll need to get the basics down before you can really begin to exhibit your creativity and have it show through your work.
The only time I really started learning this stuff is when I just jumped in and started messing around. There are a plethora of resources for 3D modeling all over the internet; for anything you would ever need to learn on the subject.
If it bothered you so much it's in the P&P section maybe you could've gotten a moderator to move it? There is a difference between harsh critcism and unconstructive. For someone just starting off I hardly think your words are encouraging, or that a 15 year old kid will take them the right way. Not saying you were wrong in your advice... I actually agree with what you're preaching, it just needed to be worded better.
Matt, you said that you had drawn a picture of what you wanted to do. Why not post it here? Even if its somewhat basic, it would be a start.
As for water rendering, I think this tutorial is pretty helpful. Its made for Maya, but (I think that) 3ds max has mental ray too, so it should translate pretty well. Maybe its a little advanced though...
Also, you said that you wanted to learn UV mapping. Have you tried... you know, searching Google? There's hundreds of tutorials on the subject, and all you need to do is type in something like "3ds max uv mapping tutorial" into a search engine....